Q&A: Grassroots Grocery’s one-year anniversary

Lauren Waters works the counter Friday at the Grassroots Grocery on Ridge Street in Alton which is celebrating its first anniversary in business.

Lauren Waters works the counter Friday at the Grassroots Grocery on Ridge Street in Alton which is celebrating its first anniversary in business.

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Lauren Waters works the counter Friday at the Grassroots Grocery on Ridge Street in Alton which is celebrating its first anniversary in business.

Lauren Waters works the counter Friday at the Grassroots Grocery on Ridge Street in Alton which is celebrating its first anniversary in business.

Q&A: Grassroots Grocery’s one-year anniversary

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ALTON — Local cooperative store Grassroots Grocery opened a year ago with the mission of providing healthy foods in an area of town far from the nearest supermarket.

One year later, the store has drawn in more neighborhood customers and gone through some changes, but the co-op still has a lot of growing to do, said co-founder Sara McGibany.

The Telegraph reached McGibany by phone for an interview on how things are going at Grassroots. Here are excerpts from the conversation.

The Telegraph: What has changed at Grassroots Grocery?

McGibany: It’s just a constant learning process. We’re always on the lookout for ways to streamline the process — ordering, making good use of volunteers. We’re really excited to transition from founder-volunteers over to the staff having more responsibility. We have a call out for a general manager. We’re currently reviewing applications, and we got a number of well-qualified applicants. We’re starting the interview process next week to bring someone on board who is going to be our point-person to bring everything together.

The Telegraph: What challenges has Grassroots Grocery encountered in its first year?

McGibany: All new businesses take a few years to bring everything fully together. We are holding our own and the store is profitable, but obviously we want to keep driving sales up. The more we are able to generate in income the more we are able to add to the store, benefits for staff, outreach in the neighborhood.

We’re doing good, we’re staying afloat, everything is going well, but it could be going so-much-more well. There’s so much moral support on our social media, when we talk to people in the community, but that hasn’t always translated into everyone making Grassroots their first stop. We want to remind people that we’re not just a great cause — we’re a great store.

The Telegraph: Grassroots started out looking to sell local items, but many of the local items in the store are more costly. How has the store balanced local and organic with offering affordable options?

McGibany: We’ve always had in mind that we want to serve the neighborhood and the shoppers who go to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. We make decisions based on: A. Is it local? That’s always the first priority. Next: Is it affordable? There’s no use in having a local item if no one is going to buy it. The third thing is organic and all-natural.

What we’ve tried to do is offer more than one option for things. We sell more than one type of cracker — the organic, artisan crackers, and the regular saltine crackers. Everybody has different needs and different budgets.

The Telegraph: What does Grassroots want to improve?

McGibany: Something we really hope our general manager streamlines is the ordering and receiving process. A regular store has a limited number of distributors, but we work with around 50 local farms and natural food distributors. The work-load alone is a full-time job to coordinate. The limited staff has been doing a great job so far, but we can’t wait to see when we get a full-time manager in there.

The Telegraph: What plans are in the works for Grassroots?

McGibany: We’re trying to decide how to best utilize the store’s back space. We’re looking at making it into a commercial kitchen. We’d love to be able to take our ripe avocados and make guacamole.

Grassroots Grocery is located at 415 Ridge St., Alton. For more information call 618-208-4999.